Jens Hogreve and Andrea Beierlein
The authors explore the outcomes of health-care professionals' participation in a vendor-hosted online community by combining qualitative and quantitative data collected in two…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors explore the outcomes of health-care professionals' participation in a vendor-hosted online community by combining qualitative and quantitative data collected in two separate studies. The authors aim to shed light on the potential value outcomes of community participation covering the reduction of service costs by professionals' community participation.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors explore the outcomes of health-care professionals' participation in a vendor-hosted online community by combining qualitative and quantitative data collected in two separate studies. The authors also introduce GABEK® as a unique method of qualitative empirical content analysis. In the quantitative study, the authors refer to customer survey data and transactional data.
Findings
The results show that participation in online communities by professionals emerges as a dual concept, consisting of both help-seeking and help-providing behaviors. These behaviors in turn facilitate the creation of economic and relational value, as well as influencing the perceived usefulness of the online community, resulting in higher satisfaction with the community among the participating professionals. Customer survey data and transactional data were gathered from a major medical equipment vendor hosting an online community, and those data confirm that participation also decreases service support costs to professionals by reducing the number of necessary service visits by the vendor's service technicians.
Practical implications
The resulting model of participation and corresponding benefits in an online community for health-care professionals reflects and informs current developments in the health care industry.
Originality/value
The combination of qualitative as well as quantitative studies relying on the data of a world leading medical equipment vendor hosting an online community provides unique and innovative insights into participation and value creation within B2B communities.
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Chiara Orsingher, Jens Hogreve and Andrea Ordanini
– The purpose of this paper is to offer a reflection on the role that meta-analysis can play in theory building for service phenomena.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer a reflection on the role that meta-analysis can play in theory building for service phenomena.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper illustrates the benefits of conducting meta-analysis, presents its basic steps, and then uses an example to illustrate how meta-analytic findings can be used to enrich and develop theory.
Findings
Meta-analytic findings allow identifying gaps in current theories, thereby offering the opportunity to develop new research. Theoretical advancement through meta-analysis can imply theory borrowing, mutual theoretical development with other disciplines, intradisciplinary and multidisciplinary theorizing.
Practical implications
Experienced researchers might use this essay to better understand how meta-analysis can be used to generate new relevant research. Young researchers and PhD students may benefit from a greater use of meta-analysis to gain a thorough knowledge of their research topic and about the areas that require further exploration.
Originality/value
Rather than thinking of meta-analysis mainly as the conclusion of a well-researched domain and a good summary of cites, this essay underlines to the service scholar community how meta-analysis can boost theoretical advancement in services.
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Lerzan Aksoy, Jens Hogreve, Bart Lariviere, Andrea Ordanini and Chiara Orsingher
The purpose of this paper is to introduce an alternative novel approach to measurement of customer perceptions of the service experience that links closely with customer loyalty…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce an alternative novel approach to measurement of customer perceptions of the service experience that links closely with customer loyalty outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual paper draws upon prior theory and empirical research to investigate the relevance of using relative metrics compared to absolute metrics in service research.
Findings
The findings upon which this paper draws upon show that measuring customer satisfaction, likelihood to recommend, brand preference using absolute metrics explain a very small per cent of the variance in key customer outcome measures such as share of wallet. Instead, a relative approach to these and other measures in service research is proposed.
Practical implications
Although business practice has embraced relative measurement much more extensively than has scientific research, the vast majority of customer experience measurement programs today continue to employ absolute measures resulting in suboptimal allocation of firm resources. This paper is a call to rethink these current measurement practices.
Originality/value
It is one of the first papers to argue for changing the widely employed use of absolute metrics in theory and practice in favor of relative metrics. Application to other service research theories is discussed.
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Sabine Benoit (née Moeller), Nicola Bilstein, Jens Hogreve and Christina Sichtmann
The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize platforms for members to exchange information by information-based online communities (IBOCs, like LinkedIn or Facebook). Because member…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize platforms for members to exchange information by information-based online communities (IBOCs, like LinkedIn or Facebook). Because member participation is vital for IBOCs, this research aims to identify and validate factors that drive member participation.
Design/methodology/approach
With reference to social exchange theory the authors developed a model of antecedents of participation in IBOCs that was tested with survey data using PLS. Because some of the results contradicted the theory, the authors examined those results in a mainly qualitative study with online community providers. These experts offered explanations that inform the discussion and managerial implications.
Findings
Role clarity, provider’s responsiveness, and enjoyment all influence member participation. Contrary to theory, the cooperation of other members affects member participation negatively while a member’s ability shows no effect.
Practical implications
This research has several implications for IBOC providers. Because ability does not affect participation directly, providers do not need to worry about lacking ability and can effectively target all potential members. The importance of provider responsiveness signals that IBOC providers should proactively monitor members’ compliance with social norms to lower the social risk for members. The impact of community-specific knowledge and enjoyment on participation puts emphasis on careful community design and the thoughtful implementation of new features that might enhance enjoyment, but reduce role clarity.
Originality/value
Whereas most of the participation literature focusses on a dyadic relationship, the research investigates the triadic relationship in which the provider is only an enabler of exchange. Furthermore, the authors bring together two streams of the literature: the participation literature, which tends to focus on offline participation; and the online community literature, which has not yet investigated participation. This is also the first paper to investigate nonlinear effects on participation.
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Roderick J. Brodie and Anders Gustafsson
The purpose of this paper is to explore enhancing theory development in service research and provide an overview of the five essays on theorizing initiated by the International…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore enhancing theory development in service research and provide an overview of the five essays on theorizing initiated by the International Network for Service Research workshop, held at Karlstad, Sweden in September 2014.
Design/methodology/approach
A collaborative theorizing process which was initiated at the Karlstad, Sweden workshop.
Findings
Six (five from the event and the introduction) original and provocative essays that explore different aspects of theorizing in service research.
Originality/value
Exploring how a collaborative approach to research can be used.
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Todd Morgan, Wesley Friske, Marko Kohtamäki and Paul Mills
This paper aims to examine how customer participation in new service development (NSD) and customer relationship management (CRM) technology can improve the NSD performance of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how customer participation in new service development (NSD) and customer relationship management (CRM) technology can improve the NSD performance of manufacturing firms. Additionally, the paper examines CRM technology usage to understand how it impacts new service performance both individually and jointly with customer participation in NSD.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is a survey of 216 manufacturing managers who are overseeing the development of new services at their organizations. For the analysis, structural equation modeling is used with Amos 22.0. Measures of all latent variables in the analysis pass the traditional tests for reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity. Furthermore, the results of a common latent factor test for common method variance and Harman’s one-factor test indicate that common method bias is not a source of endogeneity in the model.
Findings
Customer participation has a positive effect on NSD performance. CRM technology usage also has a positive effect on NSD performance. The effect of customer participation on NSD performance is enhanced by CRM technology. The results of a post hoc analysis suggest that the usage of CRM technology has the most benefit for managing the technical aspects of customer participation.
Research limitations/implications
This study has methodological limitations that may impact the generalizability of results. For instance, it is based on cross-sectional self-reported survey data, which is more subjective than longitudinal secondary data. Survey research lacks the depth and nuance of qualitative research designs, which are commonly employed to study NSD. In addition, this study focuses on large US manufacturing firms. The authors do not include small firms or international organizations in the sample. Despite these limitations, they believe the findings can provide significant contributions to the NSD literature.
Practical implications
Although prior research has shown that customer participation and CRM technology can individually influence new product development (NPD) performance, the results indicate they are equally effective factors in the development of new services. Furthermore, the authors show that customer participation can be enhanced via the use of CRM technologies. The interaction is more pronounced within the technical aspects of NSD.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the NSD literature, and it also has implications for managers leading NSD efforts in traditional tangible-product industries. The findings provide additional evidence that customer participation is an effective NSD strategy for manufacturing firms (Morgan et al., 2019). Furthermore, CRM technology is integral to NSD performance. CRM technology not only has a direct effect on NSD performance, but the interaction term of customer participation by CRM technology also has a positive effect on NSD performance.
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Kati Stormi, Teemu Laine, Petri Suomala and Tapio Elomaa
The purpose of this paper is to examine how installed base information could help servitizing original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) forecast and support their industrial service…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how installed base information could help servitizing original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) forecast and support their industrial service sales, and thus increase OEMs’ understanding regarding the dynamics of their customers lifetime values (CLVs).
Design/methodology/approach
This work constitutes a constructive research aiming to arrive at a practically relevant, yet scientific model. It involves a case study that employs statistical methods to analyze real-life quantitative data about sales and the global installed base.
Findings
The study introduces a forecasting model for industrial service sales, which considers the characteristics of the installed base and predicts the number of active customers and their yearly volume. The forecasting model performs well compared to other approaches (Croston’s method) suitable for similar data. However, reliable results require comprehensive, up-to-date information about the installed base.
Research limitations/implications
The study contributes to the servitization literature by introducing a new method for utilizing installed base information and, thus, a novel approach for improving business profitability.
Practical implications
OEMs can use the forecasting model to predict the demand for – and measure the performance of – their industrial services. To-the-point predictions can help OEMs organize field services and service production effectively and identify potential customers, thus managing their CLV accordingly. At the same time, the findings imply new requirements for managing the installed base information among the OEMs, to understand and realize the industrial service business potential. However, the results have their limitations concerning the design and use of the statistical model in comparison with alternative approaches.
Originality/value
The study presents a unique method for employing installed base information to manage the CLV and supplement the servitization literature.